Tea is one of the great uniters. There’s no problem or crisis that can’t be solved (or at least abated and eased if not solved) without the help of a cup of tea. However, coffee seems to overtaken as the hot drink of choice for a lot of people. That’s not to say we don’t mind the odd mug of Joe every so often, but really, tea has been an institution for centuries for a reason.
1. Tea is fantastic at hydrating the body and replenishing your fluid intake.
While coffee can do the same, tea has the added benefit of generally being just pure H2O with that awesome tea flavour, meaning that when it’s a scorching hot summer day, it’s much more beneficial to sip down some tea (hot or cold) as it’ll replace any fluids you’ve lost through sweating. It also means that it’s fantastic for your skin and getting it hydrated quicker.
2) Tea has been shown in studies to help reduce the chances of developing certain kinds of cancers and tumours.
As to why, the scientific evidence remains a bit unsure, but the fact that tea has been linked to improving your health since legendary Chinese emperor Shennong wrote about it almost five thousand years in an almanac surely means something.
3) Tea will keep you going for longer.
While it’s been commented on that tea has less caffeine than coffee when given in the same amount of servings, this isn’t actually true. Tea has the same amount of caffeine as coffee, and while both are stimulants, coffee has a much bigger depressing effect (not making you sad but reducing your energy levels) than tea, meaning that while both tea and coffee will give you a bigger rush of caffeine, with coffee, the high will also last shorter and drop quicker. If you’re wanting something to keep you going through the work day, tea is the best choice.
4) It’s easier than making coffee.
A churlish note perhaps but one worth noting: in the modern era, it’s much easier to just brew a cup of tea. Place teabag in a cup of hot water, remove after a few minutes, and you’re done. Admittedly the era of instant coffee makes coffee much easier to brew too, but in our world of gourmet coffees, it does seem much easier to plonk a teabag into a mug of hot water and have some instant relief.
5) There are a ton of antioxidants in tea, much more than you’re likely to get in coffee.
Antioxidants are fantastic for keeping your body ticking over and looking and feeling fantastic, hence why a lot of companies have jumped aboard the bandwagon of sticking antioxidants into products. In short, antioxidants keep you looking fresh, feeling great and tea has an abundance of them.
6) Tea can help you shed some unwanted pounds.
Relatively recent research (try saying that five times really quick) has indicated that green tea might be a great aid in helping people who want to lose weight. It might down to the fact that green tea helps kick start your metabolism or simply that tea is a better substitute as a practically calorie-free drink as opposed to downing soft drinks to quench your thirst. Plus you can’t really add much to tea to give it extra calories. Check out your nearest coffee house next time and see how many options there are that can be ultra-fattening to put on top of your coffee.
7) Tea is also pretty good for your teeth.
That is, when managed in comparison to coffee. Drink too much tea, and we’re talking a lot here, and you’re getting too much fluoride in there. Drink a reasonable amount and you’re fine and unlike coffee, you don’t have the unwarranted side effect of discolouration when it comes to drinking a lot of your favourite cup of coffee.
8) It can also protect your bones.
An Australian study recently found that people who drank tea on a regular basis had stronger bones and actually were less likely to develop osteoporosis thanks to the high levels of tea catechins. In addition, another study a few years earlier found that drinking tea helped promote healthy bone formation. While I would certainly not recommend drinking too much (that well-publicised story about a woman who developed skeletal fluorosis after consuming 150 bags of tea a day rings true), having a cup of tea can be beneficial to keeping your bones strong.
9) Tea can help reduce stress
An advantage we can all use from time to time.. While the physical cause behind this remains unknown or murky at best, it’s a well-known fact that tea is used cross-culturally as a bonding tool as well as refreshment, which goes some way to explaining why some cultures have tea so deeply ingrained as part of their customs (e.g. the British). Tea, or rather specifically, green tea has also been found to work as an anti-depressant, meaning that taking a cup next time you’re feeling a little low might just help boost your mood.
10) Last but certainly not least: tea can help strengthen your immune system.
While it probably won’t help out a huge amount while you’re battling a bout of intense flu (apart from the benefits of just drinking something and helping to flush the bug out of your system), drinking tea can really help set up and improve your immune system for next time. It’s kind of like setting up a security software on your computer – it might not help you when you’ve just been infected and installed it, but it should really help you the next time something mean and nasty appears on the horizon.
